contour.PRINTS

The collection · From the archive

Engineering and patents

The drawings that explain how a thing works: a watch movement exploded, an espresso machine in section, the safety bicycle's patent, a derailleur, a phonograph, a typewriter, a steam engine, a diving helmet.

What to make meanwhile

Coming · the first prints in this family are being drawn

Being drawn

The first prints in this family, each on sale here as soon as it is ready.

  1. 01The espresso machine
  2. 02The watch movement
  3. 03The telephone
  4. 04The safety bicycle
  5. 05The derailleur
  6. 06The phonograph
  7. 07The typewriter
  8. 08The steam engine

Meanwhile, in the collection

Prints you can make today, composed free in the Studio.

The Historic Print: Your street as the Ordnance Survey drew it more than a century ago, in London and twelve other cities. Type a postcode and find your house.
The Historic PrintYour street as the Ordnance Survey drew it more than a century ago, in London and twelve other cities. Type a postcode and find your house.
Blueprint: Your routes on a fine surveying grid.
BlueprintYour routes on a fine surveying grid.
The Map Print: Anywhere on earth, drawn from its own streets: a city, your village, or the stretch between two neighbourhoods. No data needed.
The Map PrintAnywhere on earth, drawn from its own streets: a city, your village, or the stretch between two neighbourhoods. No data needed.
The relief: Your city sculpted from its own streets, seen from the air, your route laid across it in gold.
The reliefYour city sculpted from its own streets, seen from the air, your route laid across it in gold.

Good to know

Where do the drawings come from?

From the patent offices and the engineering press of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries — public record, restored, with the patent number and the date printed beneath.

Are the drawings cleaned up?

Restored, not redrawn: the scan is cleaned of foxing and creases and set on fresh paper, and every line and letter is the draughtsman's own.

How is it printed and framed?

Like every print here: giclée printed on 200 gsm enhanced matte fine-art paper with archival pigment inks, then framed by hand in solid wood — a classic frame in eight colours or a box frame, with or without a mount — or sent rolled for a frame you already have. Made to order and posted tracked; the print guide has the sizes.

How it works

From the Studio to your wall in three steps.

The Heatmap print: a year of London runs layered into one map of familiar roads
Step 01

Choose your subject

Connect Strava in one tap for a race, a ride or a whole year. Or search for a place, type a postcode for your street on the old Ordnance Survey, or add a photograph — none of those needs an account.

The Contours print: a year of runs drawn as density contours, the ground darkest where the miles repeat
Step 02

Choose your style

Start from a finished design and make it yours: the words, the colours, the size. Twenty-three styles for your own miles, four treatments for a place, six layouts for a photograph, and the old survey as drawn or in your colours.

The Distance rings print: one ring for every activity of the year, the longer arcs the longer days
Step 03

We print and frame it

Pick a frame, check out, and it is printed to order on fine-art paper, framed by hand and posted to you, tracked.

  • Made to orderPrinted for you, never from stock
  • Fine-art paperArchival inks, framed by hand
  • Tracked deliveryUK delivery £7.85, tracked · worldwide, priced at checkout
  • Arrives damaged?We replace it, no quibble